Composer Stan Hoffman

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Composer STAN HOFFMAN grew up in Los Angeles where his interest in opera was kindled during a third grade field trip. He played piano from an early age, as well as French horn in the high school band and orchestra. While a student at the University of Michigan he was Music Director for Three Penny Opera and Mother Courage, and studied composition with William Albright, George Caccioppo, and Leslie Bassett. Though primarily interested in opera, his graduate studies in ethnomusicology with William Malm and Judith Becker produced a paper, still cited today in ethnomusicological writings, which received the Charles Seeger Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology.

Honing his theater music skills while waiting for the right opera libretto, Hoffman composed and improvised music for various productions with an experimental theater company in Boulder, Colorado, before coming to Cornish College of the Arts to teach world music and performance of Javanese gamelan. Here, he co-founded the ensemble, Gamelan Pacifica, which performs traditional and new music for Javanese instruments.

Searching the Internet for an opera libretto Hoffman came across Twilight Voices by Darlene LeFaive; the two instantly became collaborators. Twilight Voices has sparked interest from regional opera companies all over the country, and by 1998 Chaspen Opera Theater committed to the World Premiere.